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Watch out, you might be disinformed. Note that the producer is none other than Roger Ailes, who carried out Republican political consulting for many candidates during the 1970s and 1980s, and returned to presidential campaigning as a consultant to Ronald Reagan in 1984. He is widely credited with having coached Reagan to victory in the second presidential debate with Walter Mondale after Reagan had disappointed his partisans with what some call a lackluster effort in the first debate. In 1988 Ailes was credited (along with Lee Atwater) with guiding George H. W. Bush to a come-from-behind victory over Michael Dukakis.

Yes, there are many other reasons avoid that machine, unless it’s the only one left open. I prefer elliptical machines, but that’s just low-impact me.

I would like to learn more about the Rainbow Happiness Festivals in Baghdad the MSM™ won’t tell us about. I mean, what are those liberal operatives in the newsroom hiding? And why do they insist on only covering the daily bombings and mass killings? I WANT TO HEAR ABOUT THE FUCKING RAINBOW HAPPINESS FESTIVALS GODDAMIT!

Anyway, I learn from Fox all the time; I learn how to talk to people who love it ’cause the information they get and the way it’s contextualized is something very unique to FOX and talking to them requires a level of nuance you just don’t need with others. That is, some people are just misinformed and others just don’t care so they only need to be informed.
But people who hold FOX news up as a standard are generally sincere and thoughtful individuals who really believe that they are getting the real deal. You have to, essentially, undo what’s been done to them at the beginning of a sentence so that your point, at the end of your sentence, can be received. It’s like trying to talk to someone loyal only to Pacifica Radio (KPFK out here in Los Angeles), you try and couch the conversation in the reality of our circumstance and they can’t handle it; you have to undo some of what’s been done to communicate clearly. (However, at least with them you’ve got someone who’s already coming from a more historically-accurate reality, you just have to expand their world a little. FOX viewers seem to have a narrow view of even a wide breadth of historical knowledge, rendering that knowledge more anecdotal that accurate)
It seems that this looking to Network News for opinions and information in the first place is already a sign of having given up, of having accepted no competition with newspapers, radio or television – of seeing these things as the only sources for information and going with it whatever you get.

My mom’s fallen under the spell of some more conservative talk-radio out in Texas. Now, I love my mom more than anybody else alive but I’m learning that her ability to accept certain premises that aren’t in line with what she hears has diminished. Her information, when it’s given to her, already contains messages that undo any counterpoint. If I listen to the stuff now and again I know better how to talk to her (also, I know her heart, which helps). Now, since she often cites religious conviction in some her arguments it’s a bit easier ’cause, really tracing these statements along the whole line she sees the flaw in the argument herself; I’m only glad she doesn’t also watch FOX or the lesser ’cause she’d be poisoned for good.

I say, know thine enemy – it could be, after all, hiding in someone you love.

(and, I’m not really talking about Dad here – nobody really needed to jump on that comment; that wasn’t very nice at all.)

Just so you all know, Dad and I have a running thing about FOX News. Whenever I’m home I take it off their TiVo. Whenever he’s at my place he suggests we watch it and I pretend like it’s not part of my cable subscription. It’s all in good fun.

I like the new look and as for the flicker pics, did you go to China and did I miss that part of a conversation? Or are we looking at someone else’s family photos like the ones we got awhile back and no one could figure out who those people were……….hmmmm

I liked the One Tree Park a la Jack Johnson layout. I didn’t realize anything was broken.

…and ’cause I gotta. I think Mike’s comment was more re: FOX news and its popularity and not as person-directed (I’m making that up) as Will’s comment (“Watch it” vs. “Watch out”).

I must say, however, that Mike’s comments re: “liberal-media-is-hiding-positive-news” is what I’ve encountered from most champions/defenders of the FOX news network (it’s almost a defining characteristic regardless of age, sex or education); I don’t think that that line (which is the core of the sarcastic comment) is really off-base at all at its core. Actually, it seems quite informed.

I do believe watching Fox News will give one the GOP perspective on what is going on in the world, as well as where the GOP wants to direct attention (i.e., the creation of a border panic which was intended to pull attention away from the Iraq war, which was destroying Bush and GOP popularity).

Based on their criteria (which is arguably weak at quantitating many of the aspects of spin), it finds that most news organizations tilt to the left, though there are many that are very close to center, including “Newshour with Jim Lehrer”, “CNN ‘s Nightnews with Aaron Brown”, and “ABC’s Good Morning America”.

“The two most conservative outlets are the Washington Times and Fox News’ Special Report, two outlets that are often called conservative (e.g. see Alterman, 2003). Near the liberal end are CBS Evening News and the New York Times.” No surprises there.

For the most neutral reporting, I watch “The Newhour” which both reports the news and brings in subject matter experts or political representatives (depending on the topic) to present opposing views in a moderated environment. A good experiment for a person to take would be to watch the Newshour for 1 week to see if they can detect bias or if they believe they get a full breadth of exposure to the significant views of the topics covered.